Assignment: Information Interviews

Instructions

The information Interviews = two separate interviews: the first involves meeting and interviewing an entrepreneur or business owner to gather information as to their business experience, strategy, and operations.

The second consists of interviewing a commercial banker or other financial professional, to obtain information as to the bank loan requirement and approval process, and/or investment requirements and strategy, as well as critical factors needed for a banker or investor presentable business plan.

You should not wait until the due date to prepare, as meetings may be difficult to arrange at short notice. While face-to-face interviews are preferable, if your work schedule inhibits such preparation, you may conduct the interviews by telephone or via online/e-mail format.

Required Elements to include in the Informational Interview Write Up:

Students are responsible for developing questions that will garner the responses necessary to address the key elements of the assignment.
Include all of the following elements in your interview report:

• Provide a brief description of the business which includes the business form the nature of the business, how many years in business, and whether the business is local in nature, national, or international in scope;

• Why did the person decide to go into business, and what was the biggest obstacle they had to overcome in the early stages of the business;

• Did the owner develop a Business Plan before starting the business, why or why not;

• Discuss what makes the business unique and different from its competition and what is its value proposition;

• Does the company have a clearly defined strategy, what do you believe it is;

• Discuss the owners marketing and sales strategy for gaining and maintaining new business opportunities;

• What core business functions if any did the business decide to outsource and why;

• Discuss the hiring process and the core values that have been established for the organization;

• Discuss the financial management tools and metrics that the business owner depends on too manage growth and profitability;

• Discuss keys to success, from the owner's perspective;

• What the person would do differently if he/she had it to do all over again.

• Critically assess the current status of the business based on concepts presented in class. What would you say is the future for this business? Would you invest in this business? Why or why not?

• Interview questions must be included as an addendum to the assignment; however, these should not be counted toward the length requirement of the paper.

For the financial report, consisting of an interview with a commercial banker, investor, or financial professional, the content should include discussing the loan origination and approval process if interviewing a banker, or the investor analysis, decision making, and due diligence process if interviewing an investor or financial professional,

For either banker or investor, also discuss the importance of, and key material sections of, the business plan for reaching an approval decision.

• Required Formatting of Informational Interview Report:

• This report should be double spaced, 12-point font, and four to six pages in length, excluding the title page and reference page;

• Title page;

• Introductory paragraph and a summary paragraph;

• Use headings;

• Write in the third person;

• Use APA formatting for in-text citations and a reference page. You are expected to paraphrase and not use quotes. Deductions will be taken when quotes are used and found to be unnecessary.